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The Queen of Soul
Season 5 Episode 508
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Today we turn to a voice that has become a kind of measuring stick. A singer you can’t ignore, can’t casually imitate, and certainly …
10 months, 1 week ago
Dylan and the Fall
Season 5 Episode 507
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If you grew up in a certain era, his name isn’t just a performer on a poster. It’s a weather system. A shift in air pressure. A bulle…
10 months, 1 week ago
California Counterpoints
Season 5 Episode 506
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Today’s pairing may look odd until you start really listening:
The Beach Boys and The Grateful Dead.
Two California bands. Two American…
10 months, 1 week ago
Tickets and Conscience
Season 5 Episode 505
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Today I want to put two names in the same frame—Joan Baez and Taylor Swift—not because they sound alike or have the same values but b…
10 months, 1 week ago
Enduring Stones
Season 5 Episode 504
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In a recent episode, we spent time with a man who changed popular culture and then became a warning about what fame, isolation, and a…
10 months, 1 week ago
The Beatles Blueprint
Season 5 Episode 503
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I’d like to begin, not in Liverpool or Hamburg or Abbey Road, but in an American living room—mine, and millions of others—on a Sunday…
10 months, 1 week ago
The Elvis Trap
Season 5 Episode 502
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Today we’re stepping into complicated territory.
Not a personal hero of mine.
Not a composer whose scores I pore over, or a bandleader …
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Rock’s Rough Architect
Season 5 Episode 501
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Before we talk about charts and riffs and influence, I want to begin with a memory.
Years ago, I saw Chuck Berry live at the Paramount…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Creative Inheritance
Season 5 Episode 500
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Birthdays - as well as the 500th episode of a podcast - are times that generally you might want to slow down and look at the past, t…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
West Side Stories
Season 4 Episode 499
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Leonard Bernstein played piano from age 10, and attended Boston Latin School and Harvard University. So he studied music theory befo…
10 months, 2 weeks ago